In computer data communications, there is often a trade-off between desired outcomes. In one example, the performance of a system is often balanced against power consumption. In common computer systems, more overall power is consumed when the speed of operation is increased. For this reason, increasing performance in the speed of transmission of data will generally have costs in the consumption of power and, as a result, in the generation of excess heat. The power utilization of components has become increasingly important to manufacturers as computers and other electronic devices become smaller and more powerful, thus implicating issues of energy costs, battery size and life, and thermal considerations to dissipate heat.
In order to minimize power consumption and heat generation, the operation of a conventional computer component or other device will often be reduced to a minimally acceptable speed. This sacrifice of performance is particularly important in mobile operations in which the power source is a battery or other portable power generation or storage device. If power usage is reduced, then greater length of operation may be possible, a smaller and lighter battery may be useable, and additional heat dissipation measures may be avoided.
However, the increasing speed of communications and computer operations and the increasing data loads faced by systems make the tradeoff between power consumption and speed of data transmission more difficult, and thus sacrificing the performance of a system may be not acceptable. If other possible power savings measures are in place, then a reduction in speed in data transmissions may further reduce power consumption and heat generation, but only at the cost of insufficient system performance.